Marvel's What If...? Season 2 Exacerbates Captain America's MCU Woes

Impact on Captain America

Marvel's What If...? season 2 consists of nine episodes and continues the animated show's exploration of the MCU's vast multiverse. In doing so, What If...?'s various stories will include an assorted array of characters from across the MCU's various multiversal timelines. The release of What If...? will mark the final 2023 MCU project, leading into 2024's Echo, Deadpool 3, and Agatha: Darkhold Diaries. Initially, Captain America 4's release date was also confirmed for 2024, though the movie was pushed back to 2025 amid the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes and poor test screening reactions. This means that audiences will have to wait another year for Sam Wilson's MCU return as well as Captain America 4's other cast of characters. The continued wait for Captain America: Brave New World is unwittingly made worse by What If…? season 2 at no fault of either project, instead symbolizing Marvel Studios’ broader character problems.

Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson in his Captain America suit in the MCU

The show will feature the third appearance of a Cap variant in under three years. The variant in question is Hayley Atwell's Captain Carter. It is worth noting that Captain Carter is a fantastic character with a brilliant actor involved, and this is by no means a critique of how many times her character has appeared, more so a criticism of how Marvel is forgetting about more consequential heroes as a result of focusing on multiversal variants. Captain Carter was present in What If...? season 1 in 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in 2022, and What If...? season 2 in 2023. These appearances are fun but are relatively uninvolved with the wider story of the Multiverse Saga outside of being a variant. Unfortunately, this reflects poorly on Captain America himself who has been completely sidelined from the MCU for years.

Captain Carter in live action and animated form in the MCU.

The last time Sam Wilson appeared in the MCU was in 2021's What If...? season 1, and only then as a variant of Falcon. Besides that, Sam Wilson's last appearance came in 2021's The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in which the character took on the mantle of Captain America. This was a hugely consequential story for Sam, positioning him as the leader of the New Avengers and a vital character to the future of the Multiverse Saga given Captain America's overall importance to the Marvel Studios brand. However, 2024 will mark three years since these appearances, proving the disservice to Sam Wilson's Captain America. While the character would have been seen in 2024's Captain America: Brave New World, the delay of the film means Sam Wilson will have been absent from the MCU for four years by the time Captain America 4 is released in 2025. A character is vital as Captain America should not be sidelined in this way, and this is made even worse by the continual appearances of a less significant Captain America variant in the MCU.

Sam Wilson's Captain America with his shield in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

The problem in question is the ever-expanding roster of the MCU's characters via an increased output of projects. Since 2021, Marvel Studios' output has increased exponentially, from the hurried continuation of film franchises to the development of multiple Disney+ TV shows each year. This has resulted in a much larger number of so-called important characters being introduced to the MCU which makes the once-massive pool of characters from the Infinity Saga look relatively small by comparison. This is a symptom of Marvel Studios' increased content that is causing new characters to take center stage. Unfortunately, Marvel Studios cannot maintain a balance between new and old characters anymore. While What If…? Season 2 is a harmless, enjoyable anthology series, it regrettably shines a light on these character issues that Marvel Studios needs to rectify.

Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) wielding the Ten Rings as an orb in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings